Nick Novak’s career-best field goal, a 53-yarder, happened to be against the Denver Broncos. But it came at Qualcomm Stadium.

The same year, 2011, Novak also had a 52-yarder against the Green Bay Packers. Likewise, at the Q. His distance is not predicated, then, on altitude.

But it was in a 2011 game against the Broncos – this time at Denver - - where a career-high five Novak field goals helped the Chargers to a 29-24 win. With the longest of those five kicks, too, Novak finally had what many placekickers have experienced at Sports Authority Field.

The Mile High Moment.

“It was a 51-yarder that looked like it was still rising when it hit the net (behind the goal posts),” said Novak. “So, yeah, there is definitely a difference.”

The real difference for the Chargers’ visit to Denver on Sunday, of course, is this: After meeting each other 108 times in regular-season games, the Chargers and Broncos are about to face off in a postseason game for the first time. In Denver, as it happens.

Though an NFL kicker for a total of four different teams since 2005, Novak’s taking part in his first postseason. It’s no small factor, given the history of postseason kicking problems the Chargers had before he took over three seasons ago.

Nowhere in the NFL, too, does the kicking game have quite the built-in influence on the strategies of a playoff game as it does in Denver. To be sure, it can be hugely influential on the scoreboard, too, what with Matt Prater kicking for the Broncos. Jason Elam had tied the previous NFL record in 1998 with a 63-yarder at Mile High Stadium, a mark Prater beat by a yard this season at the new Mile High.

“Prater’s a freak,” said Novak. “Just a freak.”

Fact is, Novak knows going in that he’ll probably be allowed to expand his own range on Sunday. He’ll head out onto the field for warmups in the hours before kickoff, and like punter Mike Scifres, Novak will give in to playfulness and try to unleash a couple of thin-air boomers to see just how far he can send the ball at 5,280 feet.

(“In pregame, you can let it fly,” said Scifres. “There’s no one rushing at you and nobody’s returning it that you’ll have to catch. Just let it fly and try to get a bit of a rhythm.”)

That done, it’ll soon be back to the smooth golf-swing that is Novak's technique. Forcing himself to think of Denver as just another place, he'll endeavor to put the same amount of force into the kick as if he was outdoors in Cleveland or indoors in Atlanta, letting the ball do most of the work. Novak's pre-game calculations, however, will take the altitude into account when the coaches ask him to set his maximum distance for the upcoming game.

“Usually I’ll say “If the ball’s on the 35-yard line, let’s kick a field goal,” “said Novak, meaning he felt he was good to go from 53 yards or closer. “If the wind’s in my face, we’ll call it the 32-yard line. In Denver, though, I’ll push it back to the 40.”

Novak has had the wrong kind of moments against the Broncos, all in the same home game where he hit the 53-yarder. After missing a 48-yarder in the fourth quarter, Novak had a 53-yard attempt in overtime blocked, but he was given a second chance by a late Denver timeout that negated the block. Novak was wide right on the ensuing attempt and Denver won on a Prater kick.

Good on 52 of 57 field-goal tries the past two years – and two of the three misses this season were blocked -- Novak’s become virtually automatic for the Chargers. But so was his Pro Bowl predecessor, Nate Kaeding, right up until the playoffs.

Kaeding’s three missed field goals in San Diego’s last postseason game before this year – a 17-14 upset by the New York Jets on Jan. 18, 2010 – certainly figured into the Chargers’ decision to sign Novak as a challenger to the incumbent kicker.

When the Chargers’ offense stalled on consecutive drives spanning the third and quarters at Cincinnati last Sunday, Novak extended his run of successful field goals to 20 with kicks of 25 and 23 yards that kept the Bengals at bay. He’d done the same with a fourth-quarter kick of 35 yards, one of his two field goals, in the Chargers’ stunning 27-20 win at Denver on Dec. 12.

In that same game, Scifres didn’t need to boom the ball to be effective. To the contrary, his three punts were either fair-caught or downed at the Denver 6-, 11- and 2-yard lines, leaving Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning an awful long field to cover.

“As good as he is, Peyton’s going to make his plays,” said Scifres, who's been punting against Denver for more than a decade now. “He’s gonna go 90 yards on you. But you give yourself a chance when you win the field-position battle. And in this game, that’s huge.”